Category Archives: Gluten-Free

31 Days of Gluten-Free Life: Pesto Quinoa

Posted on by

31 Days of Gluten-Free Life

I thought I’d share recipes that I’ve altered to make them gluten-free so that people have some options for feeding their families who have people with gluten sensitivities. In this recipe, we’re substituting quinoa in place of orzo.

Pesto Quinoa
1 cup quinoa
1 block thawed pesto. (This works out to 1/4 – 1/3 cup.)
1 4 oz. container feta cheese. (I used Athenos which is the only brand I like.)
1 jar pitted Kalamata olives. (I used Mezzetta.)
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts (optional)
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes (optional)

Place the 1 cup of quinoa in a fine strainer and run cold water over it to rinse off any powder. (Rinse untile the water runs clear and make sure it drains well.) Boil the quinoa in 2 cups water, and then turn down to let simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. (This is important or the quinoa will start burning on the bottom.) It will be done when the grains are translucent and the perm has spiraled out. Combine the quinoa with the rest of the ingredients in the bowl and toss together so that the pesto coats all of the quinoa evenly and the rest of the ingredients are distributed evenly throughout the dish.

This works well as a side dish though I’ve eaten it as my main course most of the time.

For those who want my family’s pesto recipe (which makes a lot so be prepared to freeze it), here it is:

Pesto
8 cups basil leaves packed into food processor
1 head garlic or more Peeled and separated.
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup shredded parmesan
1 cup walnuts or pine nuts.

Pack the basil leaves into the food processor. Pulse 8-10 times so that the level starts to drop. Place the garlic cloves in the food processor and press into the basil leaves. Add some of the olive oil and pulse several more times. Repeat adding oil and garlic until oil is completely added and the mixture is a paste. Add the walnuts/pine nuts and pulse several times, just enough to chop and mix. Add the shredded parmesan and pulse several times, just enough to mix. Press into a container and refrigerate for several hours.

Divide into the portion sizes you expect to need, and package in Press’n Seal or Saran Wrap. Put the individual packages into a ziplock bag and freeze.

7 Quick Takes: 31 Days of Writing, the Pope Meeting with Kim Davis, and Cat Piles

Posted on by

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

31 Days of Writing. Because I obviously have nothing better to do with my life, I’m taking part in 31 Days of Writing. I happened to see the button on Bobbi’s blog and spontaneously decided to go for it. My topic: a month of gluten-free life. Keep checking the sticky post at the top of this blog every day this month for my ruminations on my experiment of giving up gluten.

— 2 —

It’s about freaking time! Fibromyalgia is now recognized as a legit diagnosis in ICD-10 codes for healthcare billing. It’s so nice that the medical community finally realizes that I’m not making all of this up and have a legit reason for how crappy I feel much of the time.

— 3 —

Why I do not stand with Planned Parenthood. 10 years ago, I would have been horrified that people were trying to defund Planned Parenthood. Now, I say, “do it.” Why is this? I wholeheartedly believe that if government funding was cut, Planned Parenthood could survive. All those services they claim to do that aren’t abortions are ones the community health clinics provide… for free. No Planned Parenthood site owns a mammogram machine so the claim that they do breast cancer screenings is pretty much shot there.

The largest reason that I fail to stand with Planned Parenthood is that I believe abortion is murder, pure and simple. I have friends who have had them and every one of them (and I’m talking a very diverse group of women that covers multiple ethnic groups and religions) regrets it. I’ve had people tell me that they believe in abortion in the event that the mother’s life is at risk and as someone who was in that situation 6 1/2 years ago, I want to smack those people upside the head. If the mother’s life is at risk, they do an emergency c-section to deliver the baby but they don’t intentionally kill it in the process. If it’s below 24 weeks gestation, it will probably live for only a few minutes but they still give the kid a chance at life.

One thing that causes me chills is the fact that when blood tests came back elevated for Down Syndrome, everyone jumped into action to get me a 3-D ultrasound as fast as possible so that they could do amnio and abort because, OMG, why should I be saddled with a kid with Down Syndrome? I made it very clear that I was in favor of the ultrasound but that I’d be keeping Daniel regardless of what they saw. Obviously, he doesn’t have Down Syndrome but he’s got a bunch of other things and I know there are people out there who would comment on how it’s too bad that I couldn’t abort him. Those people simultaneously enrage me and make me sad. It is insanely hard to have a kid with special needs like Daniel and yes, it has meant the death of some of the plans I’ve had for my life. Guess what? Those plans needed to die because my life is a far better place with Daniel in it.

— 4 —

Pope Francis and Kim Davis. The Vatican is not denying that the Pope met with Kim Davis while he was in the States last week and I’m thinking that someone brought her to DC, Washington, or Philly because he sure as heck did not go to some podunk place in Kentucky. I highly doubt he knew who she was and while he told her to keep on keeping on, I’m pretty sure it was because he was told on the spot about her “conscientious objecting” and it being a matter of “religious freedom”. (Both claims are loads of bull feces but none of it surprises me.) I find this piece from America Magazine as a good source for interpreting this alleged event.

And for the morons who are making this into the Pope supporting Kim Davis and going off about how this legitimizes her case, I have this to say to you:

Just stop talking.

— 5 —

More on Kim Davis. Someone told me that the Family Research Council gave her an award. Here’s the story. My thoughts on the matter: people do realize that this is the group that employed child molester and adulterer Josh Duggar as their spokesperson, right? I kind of doubt their qualifications to make decent judgements.

— 6 —

Why has nobody bought this for me?!?!?!?!? This game is like Jenga but has you stacking wooden cats instead of blocks. I think I seriously need this.

— 7 —

Because Simcha. Here’s another fabulous piece from Simcha Fisher on how your family is not your brand. Perfect people with perfect families are utterly boring. In fact, people documenting their perfect family meals and perfect family celebrations kind of make me suspect that the blogger is hiding something. I understand the need to put one’s best self forward (and there are a number of punches I pull on this blog) but people who try to make themselves look like “mother of the year” are people whose blogs I’m liable to skip over in the small amount of time I have to read blogs every day.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

31 Days of Gluten-Free Life: Smoothie Queen

Posted on by

31 Days of Gluten-Free Life

So I actually started this whole experiment a few days early so I could ease into it and have some very basic meal planning done before I started everything in full today. I checked out some foods that I knew would probably be OK and I’ve also been looking at the guide I got on the subject from Prevention Magazine. One of the things that I’ve worked on leading up to today is breakfast. I’m allergic to eggs so a Denver omelet is out, not to mention all the peppers would irritate my stomach more than it already is. Then I realized that there was an easy choice: a smoothie.

Last week, I got some frozen smoothie mix from Target that had strawberries, bananas, and a dried yogurt packet in it. I was pretty happy with those results so I started experimenting on my own. After a few trials and errors as well as my mother-in-law pointing out that the blender has a smoothie setting, I found something that works for the most part. I use:

1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup coconut-flavored Greek yogurt (I used Chobani.)
a handful of spinach
a handful or two of frozen fruit.

Layer it in the blender with the milk at the bottom, then the Greek yogurt, then the spinach, then the fruit. Blend until all is liquid. It makes a little more than a glass but I have no problem drinking the excess as well!

Kendra of Catholic All Year has a universal smoothie recipe that works, especially when making them for a family.

31 Days of Gluten-Free Life: Landing Page

Posted on by

31 Days of Gluten-Free

As usual, I tend to find out about things like Write 31 Days at the last minute and hop on the bandwagon, adding yet another thing to my nightly to-do list for that time between when I get Daniel to sleep and when I can finally go to bed. This time, however, I had a topic around which I could build it, so this monthly challenge actually *benefits* me.

For those not in the know, I have IBS and have had ulcers in the past. In late July, I started getting really sharp stomach pain and we thought that it might be another ulcer. Add on my diminished appetite and the increasing number of foods that just make me feel nauseated and we had a distinct possibility. Well… after nasty and invasive tests (endoscopy/colonoscopy), we learned that my digestive tract is fine with no ulcers and I’ve tested negative for celiac disease both in my bloodwork and in the biopsy. So what exactly is going on? After doing extensive research (also known as “Ask Facebook”), I decided to try going gluten-free for a month to see if it made any difference with my stomach. The whole 31 Days of Writing thing came along at the right time because now I have an excuse to be whiny and let people know how this is all going for me! Aren’t you lucky people? 😉

I’ll put a link to each day’s post on this page so please check back for new content. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy my musings!

Day 01: Smoothie Queen
Day 02: Pesto Quinoa
Day 03: It’s My Blog and I’ll Whine If I Want To
Day 04: Rice Pasta with Cheddar
Day 05: Coffee Klatch
Day 06: Snacking
Day 07: Eating Out
Day 08: On the Road
Day 09: Verdict on Road Food
Day 10: Uff Da!
Day 11: Craving Bread
Day 12: Attempting to Make Smart Decisions
Day 13: In Back of the Bread
Day 14: “Company Food” I Need to Learn to Make
Day 15: Interesting Find
Day 16: Reflecting (and Whining) At the Halfway Point
Day 17: Tetelestai

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: September 27, 2015

Posted on by

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY September 27, 2015

Outside my window… dusk. It was in the 90’s today. I’m looking forward to seeing the blood moon tonight.

I am thinking… about what needs to happen this week.

I am thankful… that the first time I’ve lectored in 5+ years went well. (The ELCA church I attended in West Covina didn’t put me on their rotation in 2010 and Jon’s last parish also never did, probably because of it involving Daniel running loose or the ushers having to deal with him.) I got a lot of compliments on it, which is totally *NOT* the point of doing it but still was nice.

In the kitchen… gluten-free mac n’ cheese for me and a smoothie as dessert. I need to pick up some more spinach tomorrow for them as I have a feeling I’ll be having a lot of them in October.

I am wearing… dark blue-green shirt (yay Old Navy fitted tees!) and black capris.

I am going… to be reading the transcript of the Pope’s speech at the World Meeting of Families when I’m done with this. I’ve been reading transcripts of all the Pope’s addresses this week because I don’t have a TV and I can’t be online most of the time that Daniel is home.

I am wondering… about what the *REAL* reason is for John Boehner resigning. I’ve heard everything from the Pope’s address of Congress being a Nunc Dimittus call for him to him trying to end on a high note because his position as Speaker of the House is in jeopardy. Maybe a combination of both?

I am reading… Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson. I finished Post Traumatic Church Syndrome by Reba Riley and really enjoyed it. It ended up being the deciding factor in me spending October gluten-free.

I am hoping… to get a call back about my biopsy results from the endoscopy/colonoscopy this week.

I am looking forward to… the weather cooling down. I hate heat and am so completely *OVER* temps in the 90’s. It’s freaking autumn already!

I am hearing… whatever my father-in-law is watching through our two bedroom doors.

A Daniel story for today… the little monster kept stealing my sun hat and trying to wear it with his soccer uniform yesterday.

Around the house… my mother-in-law is cleaning the kitchen and making biscuits while I put Daniel to bed.

A favorite quote for today… “When I went on my first antidepressant it had the side effect of making me fixated on suicide (which is sort of the opposite of what you want). It’s a rare side effect so I switched to something else that did work. Lots of concerned friends and family felt that the first medication failure was a clear sign that drugs were not the answer; if they were I would have been fixed. Clearly I wasn’t as sick as I said I was if the medication didn’t work for me. And that sort of makes sense, because when you have cancer the doctor gives you the best medicine and if it doesn’t shrink the tumor immediately then it’s a pretty clear sign that you were just faking it for attention. I mean, cancer is a serious, often fatal disease we’ve spent billions of dollars studying and treating so obviously a patient would never have to try multiple drugs, surgeries, treatments, etc., to find what will work specifically for them. And once the cancer sufferer is in remission they’re set for life because once they’ve learned how not to have cancer they should be good. And if they let themselves get cancer again they can just do whatever they did last time. Once you find the right cancer medication you’re pretty much immune from that disease forever. And if you get it again it’s probably just a reaction to too much gluten or not praying correctly. Right?” — Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy

I love this particular quote so much because it *VERY* accurately illustrates the crappy logic people like me get from people who think that we can just magically snap out of our depression by focusing on the happy things in our lives. (For those new to this blog, I live with both depression and an anxiety disorder. I’m also a recovering self-injurer.) As Jenny has blogged many times, “depression lies” and no number of thoughts of happy things in our lives can move us past the sheer gloom and pain we feel. The cancer analogy is pretty close to home for me because I live with my father-in-law who is fighting cancer.

One of my favorite things… air-conditioning. I couldn’t survive down here without it.

A few plans for the rest of the week: walks, core work, probably some weights to make me LBD-ready for the fall fundraiser at church, Bible study on Wednesday, PT on Thursday, soccer practice for Daniel on Thursday, date night at some point, and Daniel’s soccer game on Saturday.

A peek into my day… The kiddo and I on Saturday.

Daniel and I at half-time on Saturday.

Post Script…

To the morons obsessing over various iotas of the Pope’s visit:

You do realize that flipping out over him not outright mentioning abortion in various speeches or having conniptions over Mo Rocca lectoring at Madison Square Gardens or any of the other crises I’m hearing about makes you look like fruitcakes, right? Nobody in my world believes that the Pope failing to mention the word “abortion” means that the prohibition against it has been dropped from Catholic social teaching. As for the Mo Rocca thing, you’re in a pretty select group of people if you know what I’m even talking about and can cite chapter and verse of Scrpture and the Catechism as to why this is a BFD.

If you want to evangelize the world, try being people who who show love instead of people who make me want to run screaming away from the banks of the Tiber where I’m sitting.

Snuggles,
Jen

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: Gluten-Free, Soccer Moms, and Morons Taking Selfies

Posted on by

7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Soccer mom. Daniel had his first VIP soccer practice with AYSO tonight. We only made it through about 35 minutes until he melted down and wanted to be “all done” but hey… it’s a start. Since I’m now officially a soccer mom, I’ll be starting a GoFundMe to pay off my current car and buy a minivan. Any recommendations? [/sarcasm]

— 2 —

Gluten-free take #1. My doctor hasn’t gotten back to me with my biopsy results yet from last week but I’m planning to go completely gluten-free in October to see if it helps me at all. A complicating factor is that I’m allergic to eggs and that limits what I can eat even more, which is the reason I haven’t tried going gluten-free before now. (There’s also the “my-bloodwork-did-not-show-celiac-disease-and-I-do-not-do-fad-diets” thing but that would be snarky.) If you are gluten-free and have any recipe suggestions or possible substitutions, leave them to me in the comments.

— 3 —

Gluten-free take #2. I grabbed some “rice pasta and cheese” from Trader Joe’s to see if it was any good… and it was fabulous! It tastes like the cheap $1 mac n’ cheese from Kraft that contains all the yellow dyes banned outside the USA but without the evil dyes or the gluten. Yay!

— 4 —

Fibro flare. I’ve been dealing with a fibro flare since Sunday and this has meant that I’ve been spending mornings sleeping because I’m fighting insomnia at night. It’s impeding my ability to get things done so I’d appreciate prayers that it goes the duck away. Please and thank you!

— 5 —

Because we *TOTALLY* need more cat memes! This is one of the better Kim Davis memes I’ve seen recently:

Schrodinger's cat meets Kim Davis

— 6 —

I shouldn’t laugh but… I read an article today which claims that more people have died from selfies this year than from shark attacks. I am totally unsurprised that there are people stupid enough to take selfies while running with the bulls and doing other dangerous things that require one’s full attention. This one, however, takes the cake. (I’m guessing he’s probably at Loma Linda University Medical Center given where he’s from and the fact that “Venom ER” doctor Sean Bush is there.)

— 7 —

Prerequisite baseball take. Jon had the time of his life at the Dodgers game last week while my experience was kind of “meh”. We were pretty high up so the players on the field were like little action figures and I felt pretty disconnected from everything that was going on. (The other downside: the Dodgers won.) The bus ride to and from the church was an experience in claustrophobia for me and that probably didn’t help.

Anyway, it’s pretty likely that the Dodgers are going to take the division unless the Giants can pull a serious miracle. (The magic number is “4” so the Dodgers have to win 4 or the Giants lose 4 and it’s close to the end of the season.)

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.